EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Inheritance rule that leaves Lady Louise out is unfair, says baronet’s wife, as her younger brother leapfrogs her for Earl of Wessex title
Her elevation — from Countess of Wessex to Duchess of Edinburgh — is, say friends, a cause of ‘relief’ to King Charles’s sister-in-law, Sophie, eliminating any chance she’ll have to curtsey to Meghan.
But the merry-go-round of titles leaves one baronet’s wife distinctly unamused.
Helen Nall, who has a daughter with her husband, Sir Edward Nall, is appalled that Sophie’s daughter, Lady Louise Windsor, has been ‘leapfrogged’ by her younger brother, James, who’s succeeded Prince Edward as the Earl of Wessex.
‘Imagine if you had a school, the boys have lunch first and the girls have whatever’s left over,’ Lady Nall tells me, denouncing the law of primogeniture by which titles pass down the male line.
Lady Louise (right) has been leapfrogged by her younger brother for the Earl of Wessex title, in accordance with ancient primogeniture rules
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, pictured at the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey just days after her elevation
But she concedes that her husband’s younger brother — and heir presumptive — likes things as they are.
‘He was very dismissive when we said we were campaigning for a law change; I don’t want to give the exact words [he used].’
Charity to play Bea in film about dad’s car-crash interview
The 42-year-old actress (right) will play Princess Beatrice in the upcoming film about Prince Andrew’s car crash interview with Emily Maitlis
Prince Andrew told the steely interviewer that he could not sweat as a result of a Falklands injury
Princess Beatrice would no doubt like to forget the part she played in her father’s career-ending interview with Emily Maitlis.
But Charity Wakefield (main picture) is to make sure that her role is immortalised on screen.
The talented actress, 42, is to play Prince Andrew’s elder daughter, 34 (inset), in a Netflix film about the Buckingham Palace encounter.
Princess Beatrice would no doubt like to forget the part she played in her father’s career-ending interview with Emily Maitlis (with her father, Prince Andrew, in 2019)
‘I have the honour of playing HRH Princess Beatrice alongside a, quite frankly, frighteningly good cast,’ confirms Sussex-born Wakefield.
Producer Sam McAlister, on whose book the film is based, has said she was caught off-guard when Bea joined them. ‘[Andrew] said, “Oh, by the way, I’ve brought someone with me.”
‘I didn’t buckle because she was the rainmaker, in my view. She was the difference between yes and no, so I was really attentive to her. She was just looking after her dad.’
Having axed its in-house chamber choir, the BBC Singers, the Corporation appears to be becoming increasingly philistine.
After failing to run a single story about the death of Royal Ballet star Lynn Seymour, BBC News’s Twitter account reported King Charles’s appointment of one of Britain’s greatest conductors, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, to lead the music at his Coronation with the headline, ‘Dorset farmer to conduct music at King’s Coronation’.
A Mother’s Day with a royal tea
King Charles is cashing in on the Mothering Sunday rush by selling afternoon tea by post.
But buyers will need a king’s ransom to meet the £135 price tag — with £8 delivery on top.
The Mothering Sunday straw hamper, from Charles’s Highgrove country seat in Gloucestershire, comprises just three pots of jam, two tins of biscuits, two tins of tea and a couple of mugs (King Charles having afternoon tea with Age UK volunteers)
The Mothering Sunday straw hamper, from Charles’s Highgrove country seat in Gloucestershire, comprises just three pots of jam, two tins of biscuits, two tins of tea and a couple of mugs painted with images of the King’s retreat.
‘Our fantastic range of luxury hampers and gift sets make gift-giving this Mothering Sunday easy,’ the shop gushes.
‘Our exclusive range of food and drink gift hampers are stocked with our finest teas, champagne and sweet treats and make gift-giving a delight.’
TV’s Worrall Thompson in a stew over food safety
When TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson competed in the second series of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! he almost brought ITV1’s hugely popular reality show to a grinding halt by inciting the hungry contestants to rise up and leave camp after they received what they considered to be inadequate food.
He now faces a similar revolt at his restaurant in Oxfordshire after it was handed a new hygiene rating of only two stars out of five.
The food safety officers’ verdict has left him boiling over.
‘It’s not normal,’ Worrall Thompson, 71, declares. ‘We run a really clean kitchen.’
The Greyhound, in Peppard Common, near Henley, is billed as a destination venue for ‘high-quality’ food, where main courses are priced at £20-£27 and starters at £13.
The Greyhound, in Peppard Common, near Henley, is billed as a destination venue for ‘high-quality’ food. Chef Anthony Worrall Thompson outside his restaurant
Former Ready Steady Cook star Worrall Thompson says: ‘Personally, I thought it [the food hygiene rating] was really harsh’
However, inspectors who visited last month gave the verdict ‘improvement necessary’ to the ‘cleanliness and condition of facilities and building’.
Former Ready Steady Cook star Worrall Thompson says: ‘Personally, I thought it was really harsh, and we will be calling the inspectors back in a couple of days.
‘We felt it was nothing that would affect the hygiene of the food. We are making the improvements that they suggest and everything has been addressed.’
Worrall Thompson’s career hit a stumbling block in 2012 when he received a police caution for shoplifting items, including wine and cheese, from the Henley-on-Thames branch of Tesco on a total of five occasions.
The Greyhound. Worrall Thompson’s career hit a stumbling block in 2012 when he received a police caution for shoplifting items
The author of a few dozen cookbooks, Worrall Thompson said in 2015 that he was writing a book about the shoplifting incident.
‘It’s called Why?’ he said. ‘I hope it will be instructive, not on how to shoplift, but how to deal with it.’
On I’m A Celebrity, Worrall Thompson completed a Bushtucker Trial in which he had to retrieve ten meal stars surrounded by snakes, spiders and creepy-crawlies.
Let’s hope retrieving those food hygiene stars is less of a challenge.
There is nothing like a dame, but Helen Mirren has noticed precious few perks since collecting her Dame of the British Empire insignia at Buckingham Palace in 2003.
‘The only advantage is, when you go on British Airways, they treat you very nicely — but nobody else cares,’ laments Dame Helen, who won an Oscar for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 film The Queen.
The actress, who is married to American film director Taylor Hackford, adds: ‘My husband says: “You are a Dame in the American sense”.’
Presumably, he means she’s one classy dame.
Toff’s bright future at Cheltenham
The Jockey Club announced last month that it was ending dress-code requirements at all 15 its racecourses, but Georgia Toffolo was determined to cut a stylish figure at Cheltenham yesterday.
Georgia Toffolo was determined to cut a stylish figure at Cheltenham yesterday in a burnt orange coat
Ms Toffolo hopes to repeat her success last year when she won a hefty £37,500. She made a donation to the British Red Cross with her winnings
The I’m A Celebrity winner, 28, stood out among the usual mix of tweed suits, trilbies and flat caps on the first day of the Gloucestershire race meeting.
She wore a burnt orange coat with an extravagant faux fur collar and matching sleeves.
The former Made In Chelsea star got into the spirit of the Irish-dominated event by drinking Guinness.
She hopes to repeat her success last year when she won a hefty £37,500. She is said to have made a ‘generous’ donation to the British Red Cross and the Disasters Emergency Committee Appeal.
The Jockey Club said it was ditching dress-code requirements because it placed ‘great emphasis on diversity and inclusion’.
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